Clark Pleasant TOLLIVER…or was it Pleasant Clark TOLLIVER?…was my husband’s great-great-grandfather, born 25 May 1861 in North Carolina, probably in or near Glade Creek, Allegheny County. His parents were Jacob F. TOLIVER (1831 – 1898), a Civil War veteran, and Matilda HIGGINS (1829 – 1906). Clark had two older siblings (Amanda Phidella and Rose Phidella) and two younger siblings (Solomon and John Houston) before his parents divorced sometime before 1882. That was a time when divorce was not as common nor easy to obtain as it is today, and I hope to someday obtain a copy of their court records to discover more about that situation.

In 1882, Clark’s father remarried to Caroline CHEEK (1849 – 19270, with whom he had one known son, Clayton. Clark was a young man by this time, and not long after, he removed to Battle Creek, Madison Co., Nebraska, where he met and married Senna “Senie” COLLINS (1870 – 1950) on 3 July 1886. The couple had five children while they lived in Nebraska: a child who died young; Margie Ethel (my husband’s great-grandmother, who he remembers well); John Houston; Zada Elizabeth; and Emma Leah. The family then moved further west to Hotchkiss Twp., Delta Co., Colorado, where they had four more children: Mae; Mitchell Luther; Elsie (who died in infancy); and Lorna Ermine.

It was in Delta County that they met the MIDKIFF family. Margie married a widower in 1907, John Franklin MIDKIFF, who had four older children, including Edna Susan, whom Mitchell married 13 years later in California. Thus there were Midkiff and Tolliver cousins who were doubly related: first cousins on the Tollier side of the family and half-nieces and nephews on the other.

Sometime before 1915, Clark and Senie moved once again, this time to Los Angeles. Clark died there 22 May 1918. Senie lived until 1950. They are buried in separate cemeteries: Clark at Evergreen and Senie at Forest Lawn in Glendale.